Annotated Wire Story on Vatican Scandals Spilling Out All Over

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Documents detailing the dubious fundraising practices of a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order called the Legion of Christ were released to the public Friday, showing how the organization took control of an elderly woman's finances and persuaded her to bequeath it $60 million.

All fundraising is dubious when based on a myth that is sold by what amounts to a priestly Ponzi scheme.

The records include the first-ever depositions of high-ranking Legion officials. They shed light on the inner workings of a secretive congregation placed under Vatican receivership after the Holy See determined that its founder was a spiritual fraud who sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children with two women.

The Pope worked for the New Inquisition within the Priesthood, inheritors to mass murder of untold thousands, including Serbs, gypsies, the Wise Women (with their abortifaciants), homosexuals ("fagots" with which to start the burning of heretics), and, yes, a scientist or two, not to mention the Cathari, the Jews of the Middle Ages and later, the Arianists, and all manner of rival religiousmovements and especially the Christian gnostics.

A Rhode Island Superior Court judge said last year that the documents raised a red flag because a steadfastly spiritual elderly woman transferred millions to "clandestinely dubious religious leaders." But they had been kept under seal until The Associated Press, The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter and The Providence Journal intervened, arguing that they were in the public interest.

In effect,this scheme amounts to Indulgences on a grand scale: millions given to rascally priests so that one may be bought out of Hell or Purgatory, the priests empowered with special prayers to intervene in one's afterlife existence, changing God's mind, as it were.

Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had lived a double life. The pope ordered a wholesale reform of the order and named a papal delegate to oversee it.

Why did he not intervene when he was second in command? The next to top guy does the dirty work; it is his last challenge before payday: white smoke. And all this time Benedict oversaw dealings with pedophile priest in the U.S., aiding and abetting the obstruction of justice and the enabling of recidivist priests in finding new parishes and new boys to molest, or girls as the case might be.

The Legion scandal is significant because it shows how the Holy See willfully ignored credible allegations of abuse against Maciel for decades, all while holding him up as a model of sainthood for the faithful because he brought in money and vocations to the priesthood. The scandal, which has tarnished the legacy of Pope John Paul II, is the most egregious example of how the Vatican ignored decades of reports about sexually abusive priests because church leaders put the interests of the institution above those of the victims.

"Willful ignorance" has a technical legal meaning: it suggests acts just short of malice; it means turning one's gaze away from activities that should have been reported in each instance to child protective services, failure to do so being a crime. It suggests deprivation of the civil rights of the victims of the abuse, a violation of their most fundamental being.

The will of Gabrielle Mee, who died at age 96 in 2008, is the focus of the lawsuit. Mee's niece, Mary Lou Dauray, had alleged that Mee was defrauded by the Legion and unduly influenced by its priests into giving away her fortune. Her late husband was a onetime director of Fleet National Bank, which has since been absorbed by Bank of America.

There we have it: a dying widow is easy pray (pun intended): at 96, one has little will and can be subjected to undue influence. One imagines a Marcial Maciel whispering sweet nothings into the old gal's ears as she lay dying, telling her God has forgiven her for his sins, though he might put her in Purgatory a little while just to make sure he hasn't come across any entries that were overlooked in his big Omniscience computer system. A generous gift would buy her advance up the Heavenly Ladder.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ruled in September that Dauray could not sue, but he noted there was evidence that Mee had been unduly persuaded to change her trusts and will and give the Legion her money. Dauray's lawyer, Bernard Jackvony, said Friday that the documents being released show an orchestrated effort by higher-ups at the Legion to get Mee's money and cover up Maciel's misdeeds.

And just who do you suppose was overseeing the doings of the Legion and taking the God Father's share of the filthy lucre?

The Legion says its actions surrounding Mee and her estate were appropriate and honorable. It says it did not exert undue influence over her decision-making, and that the gifts she gave to the order were made of her own free will.

What "free will"? Very clever but ridiculous.

Among the documents being released are depositions given by top-ranking leadership of the Legion, including the Rev. Anthony Bannon, who was once Maciel's deputy, and the Rev. Luis Garza, current head of the Legion's North American operations. In one deposition, Garza acknowledged that he was on a committee of Legion officials that was created to distribute funds from one of Mee's trusts exclusively for Legion activities.

I should think the government might want to look into this Luis Garza. Taking advantage of a widow is unconscionable.

During my occult period, I "worshiped" Baphomet, but only symbolic of Pan. Rival religions so feared the popularity of the god of shepherds (sound vaguely familiar?) they perpetuated the myth that Pan, who was presumably immortal, had somehow "died." Wiki on the matter:

"According to the Greek historian Plutarch (in De defectu oraculorum, "The Obsolescence of Oracles"),[23] Pan is the only Greek god (other than Asclepius) who actually dies. During the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island of Paxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes,[24] take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead." Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments."

Pan, for me, was nothing but the reinvention of Shiva. That is because he is of that class of classical deities are endowed with extraordinary sexual endowments and propensities, the original pansexualists. (Note that his is enirely the opposite of the Christians, who make sex dirty and in some cases "perverted" as if they did nothing themselves a little odd when it comes to matters sexual. By turning sex into a sin, The Priesthood could blackmail more congregants into submission. The sexual morality espoused by them comes from 5,000-year-old "holy" books, hoary volumes that make eating shrimp a cardinal sin. I like my oysters on the half-shell myself, with a little lime juice, hot sauce, and saltine crackers; alas, today, it's O'Doull's N.A. to wash the forbidden fruit of the sea down my pie hole.

Danielou said that Shiva became Dionysus, but what is Pan if not Dionysus without the wine? Here He is with Daphnis. Note the horny nature of Him. He thinks of nothing but sex, with the exception of mentoring young people, as here.

We (my hubby and I) collected quite a bit during our occult period as well, we have a gorgeous representation of Cernunnos that I picked up somewhere along the way, a Pan in my office, several goat pieces scattered about and we had a thing for horned skulls and built up quite a collection during that time. I even have one mask from Kenya with horns, I always loved the imagery of that god and I never understood the vilification of sexuality, after all, it's how we all got here. Love that piece you posted, would love to have a replica of that for the yard!

When I got into it, I shopped at an occult book shop in NYC where the owner, a fat, tres gai neo-pagan with a pissy disposition, glanced at the little statuette I was buying and I blushed and said "Pan." He replied: "Dionysus. Look at the jug he's carrying." Sure enough, my ithyphallic Dionysus, he of the platypus lips, clutches closely his jug of wine. The owner, who also carried merchandise relating to voudoo, witchcraft, and other heretic or pagani belief systems, was well known in occult circles, which tends to be a very hermetic subculture, you should pardon the pun.

Since 1855, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Lévi. It represents the duality of male and female, as well as Heaven and Hell or night and day signified by the raising of one arm and the downward gesture of the other. It can be taken in fact, to represent any of the major harmonious dichotomies of the cosmos. However, Baphomet has been connected with Satanism as well, primarly due to the adoption of its symbol by the Church of Satan.

Let us not forget the words of the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley (who took the "magick name" of Baphomet, only for Qabalistic purposes, he had to spell it "Bafomitr," I think it was): "The Devil is the God of people one personally dislikes." Crowley should be more widely read. He was no Satanist, he was a yogi.

I couldn't agree more, his are the books we refuse to part with, well to be honest I find it hard to part with books period LOL... /somebody help me I think I'm going to end up on hoarders!

Reading your story about the Pan/Dionysus above, I have this one Moses bust that I thought was a pagan statue when I bought it, remember the one with what appear to be horns? Supposedly his rays of inspiration or some such nonsense, I forget how they described it. I kid you not, I thought he was Greek...! I still have him, I rub his horns from time to time and it makes me laugh, find joy where you can!

Let me think for a minute ... there is a corrupt system of males with corrupt male leaders who have sexual problems telling our people and wanting to influence our laws in the USA that contraception is bad, abortion is murder and the mother of the aborted child is a murderer.

Now, to whom does one give allegiance? Do we want church to get messed up with state? Are all religions and religious corrupt and sexually sick? NO, But can I tolerate the destruction of the wall of separation between church and state? NO